Reducing the Use of Resources

• The reduction in use, reuse and recycling of materials by end users reduces the use of limited resources, use of energy sources, waste and environmental impacts.
• Metals, glass, building materials, clay ceramics and most plastics are produced from limited raw materials. Much of the energy for the processes comes from limited resources. Obtaining raw materials from the Earth by quarrying and mining causes environmental impacts
• Some products, such as glass bottles, can be reused. Glass bottles can be crushed and melted to make different glass products. Other products cannot be reused and so are recycled for a different use.
• Metals can be recycled by melting and recasting or reforming into different products. The amount of separation required for recycling depends on the material and the properties required of the final product. For example, some scrap steel can be added to iron from a blast furnace to reduce the amount of iron that needs to be extracted from iron ore.
• Raw materials

  • Obtained by quarrying or mining
  • Harmful to the environment (e.g. dust, habitat destruction, chemical release)
  • Require a lot of energy to turn into useful products (often from limited resources like fossil fuels)
• Reusing

  Reusing products like glass bottles
• Recycling

  Crushing and molding glass into different products

  Recycling plastic bottles into fleece jackets and carpets

  Melting and casting metals into different products
• Recycling metals requires separating different metals before recycling, depending on the properties of the final product
• Scrap steel can be added to iron from a blast furnace to reduce the amount of iron that needs to be extracted from iron ore
• You'll find plenty of questions on reducing the use of resources in the revision workbook